童話故事的聽眾除兒童之外也包括成人但19世紀(jì)及20世紀(jì)之后，童話故事開始漸漸轉(zhuǎn)變成兒童文學(xué)的一部份。

　　夫人屬“牛”

　　In the past, an official celebrated1 his birthday.

　　A small official under him heard that he was born in the year of "the rat". To curry2 the official's favour, he had a gold rat cast as a birthday present and went to the official's house to congratulate him on his birthday.

　　The official was very pleased at the sight of the gold rat and said: "Do you know? In a few days my wife will celebrate her birthday too. She was born in the year of 'the ox'".

　　從前，有個(gè)官員過(guò)生日。

　　他手下的一個(gè)小官聽說(shuō)他屬“鼠”，為了巴結(jié)他，鑄了一只金鼠作為壽禮，登門祝壽。

　　這個(gè)官員一見金鼠，很是高興，說(shuō)：“你們知道嗎?過(guò)幾天，我的夫人也要過(guò)生日了，她是屬‘牛’”。

　　洪水

　　Towards the end of the Age of Bronze the human world became very cruel.

　　Men grew hungry,impolite and ungodly.Neither rightn or law was respected any longer,and the rule of hospitality was forgotten.Dressed up in human form,Zeus visited Arcadia andThessaly,and disliked the deadly wrongs of men .He decidedto clear the earth of them all.Without hesitation he released therainy south wind and called upon the heartless Poseidon to help.Soon the whole world sank in a vast ocean, and the entire humanrace disappeared in the unheard of flood,all but two poor Thessalians .

　　These were an old childless couple,kind and faithful and contented with life.The man was called Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha.Son of Prometheus,Deucalion had been warned beforehand by his father of the coming flood and made himself a hugechest.When the roaring flood came the couple hid themselves init and floated for nine days until it touched land again on Mt Parnassus.